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ryleelizabeth 's review for:
House of Flame and Shadow
by Sarah J. Maas
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The biggest let down of my life. This book is honestly so poorly written and almost impossible to get through. I’ll be honest it had me in the first half with the world walking and all, and then Bryce just had to be a little baby b1tch the whole time. What do you mean this girl is angry at her supposed mate because he was tortured and didn’t want that fate for her????? What do you mean HE apologizes for HIS OWN TRAUMA because he is so whipped by this spoiled, privileged, entitled, narcissistic BRAT????? I was never Bryce’s biggest fan for the aforementioned character traits above, but my gosh how did she go from spoiled, entitled brat who is understandably angry at her circumstances and self destructs, to an insufferable b1tch who does what she wants when she wants and ain’t nobody gonna say anything! Like why would you set this character up to have a self healing journey, pointing out the clear flaws with her lifestyle and how it kept her in a destructive cycle just to say “Oh wait actually that’s just how she is and that’s a good thing! Girl power!” Sorry I don’t like characters who think they can do no wrong and everyone around them is the problem, who has no forgiveness for anyone but expects it from everyone. Truly a pathetic excuse for a strong lead, being an entitled baby is not strength. Ok rant over, let’s get into the actual writing problems.
The whole first half of this book goes a million miles an hour, which is how Sarah writes and part of the reason her books are enjoyable. But here’s the problem we go from action, scheming, plotting to rushed relationship issues that feel so insignificant. If she had actually taken the time to flesh out some of these arguments and actually let the characters be mad at one another this wouldn’t be a problem, but it seems to just be thrown in there for more drama and filler. Then we get to this supposedly massive, world ending war that seems to only take a few hours to resolve? Like all that build up in the second book about how powerful these people were, how they had eyes and ears everywhere and an oppressive government just for it to be extremely easy to take them down. It doesn’t make sense, if you are going to make these bad guys the main villains over ALL of your series you can’t kill them all off in like 30 pages. It felt like there were no stakes, everyone was going to survive and that was obvious, because truly these big bad villains were not intimidating and clearly are easily defeated. The pacing was just horrible for this kind of story and really should have been spread out to another book, or there should have been more successful resistance in the first two books, because let’s not forgot this is basically the first time anyone has ever won against them!!! And it was done so quickly, switching between POVs where half the characters aren’t even really doing anything.
Sarah really could have leaned into the whole corrupt government and having secret rebels and it could have been a fantastic story, especially the way she linked the worlds together. If Lidia had been our leading lady these books could have actually been worth reading. Imagine a rebel spy forced to do unimaginable things for hopes of a better future, someone who has to constantly be confronted with the horrors of their own actions and the excuses and justifications for those actions. Imagine her finding this information about the rulers and having to find a way to get that information to the rebels without getting found out. It could have been great. Instead we get a very convoluted story that doesn’t know what it wants to be and a main character who is completely idiotic and insufferable with no character growth.
Overall this series and especially this book was a huge let down, and I hope this series never continues.
The whole first half of this book goes a million miles an hour, which is how Sarah writes and part of the reason her books are enjoyable. But here’s the problem we go from action, scheming, plotting to rushed relationship issues that feel so insignificant. If she had actually taken the time to flesh out some of these arguments and actually let the characters be mad at one another this wouldn’t be a problem, but it seems to just be thrown in there for more drama and filler. Then we get to this supposedly massive, world ending war that seems to only take a few hours to resolve? Like all that build up in the second book about how powerful these people were, how they had eyes and ears everywhere and an oppressive government just for it to be extremely easy to take them down. It doesn’t make sense, if you are going to make these bad guys the main villains over ALL of your series you can’t kill them all off in like 30 pages. It felt like there were no stakes, everyone was going to survive and that was obvious, because truly these big bad villains were not intimidating and clearly are easily defeated. The pacing was just horrible for this kind of story and really should have been spread out to another book, or there should have been more successful resistance in the first two books, because let’s not forgot this is basically the first time anyone has ever won against them!!! And it was done so quickly, switching between POVs where half the characters aren’t even really doing anything.
Sarah really could have leaned into the whole corrupt government and having secret rebels and it could have been a fantastic story, especially the way she linked the worlds together. If Lidia had been our leading lady these books could have actually been worth reading. Imagine a rebel spy forced to do unimaginable things for hopes of a better future, someone who has to constantly be confronted with the horrors of their own actions and the excuses and justifications for those actions. Imagine her finding this information about the rulers and having to find a way to get that information to the rebels without getting found out. It could have been great. Instead we get a very convoluted story that doesn’t know what it wants to be and a main character who is completely idiotic and insufferable with no character growth.
Overall this series and especially this book was a huge let down, and I hope this series never continues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture